Marathon training, week 10

Training for Twin Cities Marathon, October 9:

Monday: 10+ total. This was a hot mess. We went to Bay St. Louis to visit with David's family over the holiday weekend, but as our plans evolved, we ended up planing to leave early to stop at a friend's house on the way home. This messed up my "evening speed work" plan, so I suddenly had to complete this workout right away. It was 2 x 3 miles with a 1 mile break in between. So I ended up running this on a path by the beach, right after a big lunch, into a storm. I did an out-and-back, and I didn't need to worry about running this too fast for the first rep - it was straight into the wind. What a struggle! I ate or inhaled sand for 3 miles in 21:04. After the turn-around, my last rep felt like walking, thanks to the tailwind: 20:42. 
Tuesday: Off.
Wednesday: 11 total with 9 at tempo: 7:05, 7:06, 7:05, 7:03, 7:11, 7:12, 7:11, 7:15, 7:13. I don't like how I fell apart at the end! I think I started this too fast. I was still at the low-end of the pace range, but I'd prefer to be more consistent.
Thursday: 10 easy.
Friday: 10 at 7:45 pace. I moved my long run to accommodate weekend plans. 
Saturday: 6.5 easy. Squeezed this in before we left for a short trip.
Sunday: 7 easy on the Chicago lakefront. Oh, how beautiful! The weather was incredible - a sunny 72 degrees. I was supposed to do 6, but was estimating a route from our hotel, and also had to wait for my Garmin to find a satellite hundreds of miles away from home. So it was about 7, and I didn't mind that a bit. It's been so long since I've run in weather like this that I absolutely could not reign in the pace. 7:27 average, including the parts in the city dodging pedestrians, and it felt so good. I'm not worried about running too fast, because perceived effort was easy, and plus - I am going to enjoy this weather while I can! 

Total: 55 miles.

It was a little warmer again this week, but not as bad as July and August, and I think we're firmly out of that phase of summer misery. Hurray! Still, though, comparing New Orleans to Chicago - it's amazing what the weather does to you. Hard effort in New Orleans September is easy, conversational Chicago September pace (we lucked out on some beautiful weather for our trip).

I have been totally slacking off on strength training, and it's showing: I feel less powerful, and I have that feeling of weakness that leads to niggles and injuries. My hips have had less mobility (I skipped my myrtles for the first time in years this week!) and I have some mild tendonitis below my knee. Time to nip that in the bud and get back to strengthening! I started a new semester and my two MBA classes are a ton of work, mostly because one of them has had all manner of technical difficulties. It's such a heavy workload that I've been doing school until midnight every evening. Hopefully I can get a better grip on it soon, but either way, I have to fit strength in somewhere: it's important.